Pages

Monday, February 29, 2016

Moldova could be a new HOT SPOT .... is a re-alignment with Moscow in their future ?

Daniel Schearf

February 29, 2016 10:36 AM

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA—

Corruption scandals have tainted Moldova's pro-European leadership and boosted support for pro-Russia parties that argue for closer ties with its Soviet-era ally, Moscow.

Moldova's pro-Russia parties say the West for years supported corrupt Europe-leaning politicians running the country, and therefore, they argue, a re-alignment with Moscow is the way forward.

Igor Dodon, a protest leader with Moldova’s Socialist Party, has a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin on his office wall and makes no secret about which direction he wants to see his country take.

“The strategic interest of Moldova is [solving] the economic problems and the country's integrity,” he told VOA. “This objective can be achieved only in strategic partnership with the Russian Federation.”

Our February 29 edition of From the Isle of Music will feature an interview in
Spanish (with music) with Juan Carlos Marín, one of Cuba's best young Jazz
trombonists, more of the Cuban classical release Piñera Concertante and a
variety of other Cuban music including some folkloric Afro Cuban music from Team
Cuba de la Rumba. We are grateful to our growing family of listeners,
and although we aren't available for listening on demand, we are researching
options for a possible rebroadcast of the program at an hour more convenient for
Europe and Africa, where we are on in the wee hours (we will hang on to our
current time and date, which is perfect for the Americas, in either
case).Every Monday night from 8pm-9pm EST in North, Central and South America (Tuesday morning from 0100-0200 UTC in Europe and Africa) on the short waves on WBCQ The Planet, 7.490 MHz.From the Isle of Music, a new radio program dedicated to the music of Cuba – Jazz, Fusion, Timba, Nueva Trova, Son, Classical, Folklorica, interviews with musicians, even a little history of the music now and then. Partly in English, en parte en español. “Like” our page to keep informed about what we will bring you. (For those without shortwave or outside of viable signal range, there are also a couple of ways to stream the frequency via Internet; see the instructions in our NOTES section).

Product: Weekly Highlights and Forecasts:Issued: 2016 Feb 29 0233 UTC# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center# Product description and SWPC web contact http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/weekly.html## Weekly Highlights and Forecasts#Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 22 - 28 February 2016Solar activity reached low levels with only C-class flare activity observed this period. Region 2506 (S05, L=224, class/area=110/Dai o 28 Feb) was responsible for nearly all flare activity this periodincluding three low-level C-class flares, the largest of which was a C3/Sf flare at 0500 UTC on 27 Feb. A filament eruption centered near S16E19 (vicinity of Region 2506) was observed in SDO/AIA imagery between 0030-0130 UTC on 18 Feb but no associated coronal mass ejection (CME) was observed in LASCO coronagraph imagery suggesting the bulk of the plasma was reabsorbed. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed this period. No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached high levels on 22-24 and 28 Feb with moderate levels observed throughout the remainder of the period. Geomagnetic field activity briefly reached unsettled levels on 23-24 and 26 Feb with quiet conditions observed throughout the remainder of the period under a nominal solar wind regime. Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 29 February - 26 March 2016Solar activity is expected to be very low with a chance for C-class flares on 29 Feb and 15-26 Mar. Solar activity is expected to increase to low levels with a chance for M-class flares (R1-R2(Minor-Moderate) Radio Blackouts) on 01-14 Mar due to the return of old Region 2497 (N12, L=240) which produced four M-class flares last rotation. No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit barring any significant flare activity. The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 15-22 Mar, moderate levels on 04-05, 07-08, 13-14, and 23-26 Mar, and at normal levels for theremainder of the period. Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels on 14-16 Mar and active levels on 01, 06, and 17 Mar due to the effects of multiple recurrent coronal holehigh speed streams (CH HSSs). Quiet or quiet to unsettled geomagnetic field conditions under a nominal solar wind regime are

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Shortwave listening, or SWLing, is the hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts transmitting on frequencies between 1700 kHz and 30 MHz. These transmissions can propagate thousands of miles and can reach audiences worldwide. For instance, if you live in the United States you can easily hear shortwave broadcast stations from countries like Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, North/South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, and many other counties if you have a good shortwave radio receiver, and you know when and where to listen!

Quite simply shortwave radio provides the listener with a window to the world that no other communications medium can provide. The listener will be entertained with unique perspectives to events from around the world that you cannot get from most national media outlets.

Throughout the world, shortwave radio remains the most readily available and affordable means of global communication and information. You'll learn about the lives and concerns of people from all walks of life in over 300 different languages and dialects. Shortwave radio also provides nearly instantaneous coverage of news and events from around the world.

There are even transmissions from the dark side of shortwave radio from broadcasters known as clandestine or clanny stations. Clandestine broadcasters are deceptive and they usually exist to bring about political changes or actions to a particular target country. Programming is essentially propaganda, and may largely be half-truths or sometimes outright lies.

If you want to get into the action then the International Shortwave Broadcast Guide is a must purchase to let you know when and where to listen for broadcast radio stations in the shortwave broadcast spectrum.

The Winter 2015-2016 International Shortwave Broadcast Guide, by Amazon bestselling author Gayle Van Horn, W4GVH, is that all important information resource you need to tap into the worldwide shortwave broadcast radio spectrum.

It is a 24-hour station/frequency guide to “all” the known stations currently broadcasting on shortwave radio at time of publication. This unique shortwave resource is the “only” publication in the world that offers by-hour schedules that includes all language services, frequencies and world target areas for each broadcast station.

New In this edition, there is a feature on listening to Asia’s broadcast giant – China, updated information on the state of tropical band broadcasting, and a special feature on Who’s Who in the shortwave radio spectrum outside the regular broadcast bands. Frequency and station coverage has also increased in this edition to include Longwave frequency broadcasters, and international standard time and frequency stations worldwide.

The International Shortwave Broadcast Guide (Winter 2015-2016 edition) is now available for purchase worldwide from Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0196UYDTI. The price for this latest edition is US$5.99. Since this book is being released internationally, Amazon customers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France Spain, Italy, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and Australia can order this electronic book (e-Book) from Amazon websites directly servicing these countries. All other countries can use the regular Amazon.com website.

This new e-publication edition is an expanded version of the English shortwave broadcast guide that was formerly printed in the pages of Monitoring Times magazine for over 20 years. This one of a kind electronic e-book is published twice a year to correspond with station seasonal time and frequency changes.

If you enjoy listening or monitoring HF shortwave stations, and you miss the monthly English frequency listings formerly published in the late Monitoring Times magazine, and multilingual station listing in the old MTXpress electronic magazine, this valuable tool will now be your new guide to listening to the world.

And, the good news is that you do not need to own a Kindle reader to read Amazon e-book publications. You can read any Kindle book with Amazon’s free reading apps.

There are free Kindle reading apps for the Kindle Cloud Reader, Smartphones (iPhone, iTouch, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry); computer platforms (Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 and Mac); Tablets (iPad, Android and Windows 8), and, of course, all of the Kindle family of readers including the Kindle Fire series. A Kindle e-book allows you to buy your book once and read it anywhere. You can find additional details on these apps by checking out this link to the Amazon website at www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771.

The International Shortwave Broadcast Guide will have wide appeal to shortwave radio hobbyists, amateur radio operators, educators, foreign language students, news agencies, news buffs, and many more interested in listening to a global view of news and events as they happen.

If you are an amateur radio operator or shortwave radio enthusiasts, and want to hear what is happening outside the ham bands on that transceiver or portable shortwave radio in your radio shack, then this new e-book from Teak Publishing is a must in your radio reference library.

Here are a few of the public comments from radio hobbyists who purchased the first four editions of this Amazon e-book.

Italian Broadcasting Corporation IBC, will broadcast again as follows:

All times UTC

Feb.27 2200-0200 on 6970 to Am in USB

Feb.28 0800-1200 on 6970 to Eu in AM
Feb.28 1600-2100 on 6970 to As/Oc USB
During our airtime we will broadcast some old transmissions in English, Italian
and Farsi, as well as new transmissions in English and Italian, like a mailbox:
"La posta degli ascoltatori" and "Italian Shortwave Panorama", co-produced with
Marconi Radio International. Please send your reports to . Good
listening! Italian Broadcasting Corporation IBC from 1979! Antonello Napolitano

DigiDX is a new service providing DX news in MFSK32 via Channel 292 in Germany, 6070 kHz, 10 kW.
The DigiDX test transmissions last weekend were mostly successful despite China
Radio International and other stations on the same frequency at various times.

DigiDX MFSK32 transmissions
will resume this weekend via Channel 292, 6070 kHz. One will be Sunday at 0200
UTC (Saturday 9 pm EST), with possible reception in the Americas. The other will
be Sunday at 1100 UTC. You might hear DigiDX MFSK32 transmissions at other times
during the weekend on 6070 kHz, and possibly via Radio 700 on 3985 kHz. Consult
the DigiDX Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/digidx, and its Twitter account, https://twitter.com/Digi_DX .

Here is the lineup for VOA
Radiogram, program 152, 27-28 February
2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

The Mighty
KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK32
Sunday at about 0220 UTC (Saturday 9:20 pm EST) on 6040 kHz, via Germany. Yes, I
know this conflicts with the DigiDX transmission this weekend. We will try to
harmonize the digital mode schedules in future weeks. Reports for KBC reception
and decode to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thanks for an increasing number
of reports, including many new reports from Germany, where an article about VOA
Radiogram was recently published in CQDL. I’m now compiling the gallery
of MFSK32 images from program 135 (Halloween 2015!) and will respond to those
reports over the weekend.

WASHINGTON
D.C., February 26, 2016 -- The Voice of America is
shaking up its prime time television line-up in Iran with a fresh look and with
new Farsi language programming that will continue to speak to Iran's millennials
and its diverse audience. "We are making efforts to keep pace with the media
markets in Iran. The target is a younger audience and we are evolving with the
times," explains VOA Persian Service Director Setareh Derakhshesh.

Beginning Monday, February 29th from 8:00 - 8:30 p.m. Iran time, VOA Persian will offer four separate programs under one
umbrella - New Horizon - each focusing on the rapidly changing issues
affecting Iran and the world:

Mondays: New Horizon with Payam Yazdian, (International Issues)

Tuesdays: New Horizon with Masoud Safiri, (Inside Iran Issues)

Wednesdays: New Horizon with Ali Javanmardi, (Regional Issues and
the Fight against ISIS)

Thursdays: New Horizon with Fahimeh Khezr Heidari, (Women and
Minorities, Culture, and Social Issues)

Paired with the New Horizon programs and airing from 8:30 - 9:00
p.m. Iran time, VOA Persian will also premiere four half-hour Farsi language
documentary series, produced by Bloomberg Television:

"Relations between Iran and the United States are evolving," said Kelu
Chao, acting VOA Director. "Our new prime time television lineup for Iran
responds to the evolving needs of the Iranian audience."

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

For the first time, astronomers have traced an enigmatic blast of radio waves to its source

by Mark Zastrow

Since 2007, astronomers have detected curious bright blasts of radio waves from the cosmos, each lasting no more than a few milliseconds. Now scientists have been able to pinpoint the source of one of these pulses: a galaxy 1.9 billion parsecs (6 billion light years) away. It probably came from two colliding neutron stars, says astronomer Evan Keane of the Jodrell Bank Observatory outside Manchester, UK, who led the team that reports the detection in Nature1.

The discovery is the “measurement the field has been waiting for”, says astronomer Kiyoshi Masui of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. By finding more such fast radio bursts (FRBs) and measuring the distance to their source, astronomers hope to use the signals as beacons to shed light on the evolution of the Universe.

On February 22 (February 23 in Europe/Africa), our special guest will be Juan
Chacón, leader of the Cuban Jazz saxophone quartet Magic Sax with an
interview in Spanish recorded in Havana plus some of their music. We also
begin sharing some of the Cuban Classical music album Piñera Concertante and
will be playing 10-15 minutes from it each of the next few weeks along with
our wonderful collection of other Cuban music.

Every Monday night from 8pm-9pm EST in North, Central and South America (Tuesday morning from 0100-0200 UTC in Europe and Africa) on the short waves on WBCQ The Planet, 7.490 MHz:

From the Isle of Music, a new radio program dedicated to the music of Cuba – Jazz, Fusion, Timba, Nueva Trova, Son, Classical, Folklorica, interviews with musicians, even a little history of the music now and then. Partly in English, en parte en español. “Like” our page to keep informed about what we will bring you. (For those without shortwave or outside of viable signal range, there are also a couple of ways to stream the frequency via Internet; see the instructions in our NOTES section).

Radio Northern Starin
Bergen, Norway now has a regular broadcasting schedule:

Under a test and
development licence we are using LKB LLE's LLE-4 station on 1611 kHzMW and a Skanti
TRP-8250 HF 250 Watts remotely controlled transmitter on 5895 kHz, in USB mode and a
refurbished Comrod antenna.

Medium Wave 1611 kHzShort
wave 5895 kHz

Sunday 0400-0430 and 2100-2230 2300-0330 and 1400-1600

Monday 0600-0800 and 1630-1730 2300-0100 and 1400-1600

Tuesday 2302-0030 and 1730-1830 0600-0800 and 1400-1600

Wednesday 0500-0530 and 2100-2130 0700-0900 and 1600-1800

Thursday 2330-0100 and 1830-1930 0600-0800 and 1400-1600

Friday 0700-0900 and 1930-2030 2300-0100 and 1400-1600

Saturday 0600-0630 and 2030-2100 2300-0900 and 1400-1600

In total 16
hours of transmission per week.

Monitored so far
in AM mode @65 watts in the Shetland Islands, England, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands,
Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The current distance record belongs
to Bjarne Mjelde i Finnmark, 1574 kms! If you're hearing us, we'd also be happy
to receive your reception report to report@bergenkringkaster.noor 1000@northernstar.no

Back
in December 1941, all of the wireless and radio stations on the island of Guam
were either badly damaged or totally destroyed at the time of the Japanese
invasion and occupation of the island. The large and important American naval radio
station NPN at Nimitz Hill was destroyed in a Japanese air raid during the
initial attacks on December 10.

During the nearly three years of
Japanese occupation, there was almost no American radio activity on the island,
though there were a few occasional clandestine transmissions. The Japanese occupation forces installed
their own temporary radio communication facility, which we presume was
somewhere within the areas of the island capital Agana. This station was also destroyed by aerial
activity when the American forces made a bombing raid on July 16, 1944; and
they secured the island a little less than a month later, on August 10.

American radio communications were
provided initially by the USS Appalachian at anchor in Agat Harbor, quite near
the coastal area whereon the AWR shortwave station KSDA is now located. The Appalachian, under the regular navy
callsign NCLG, arrived in Agat Harbor on July 14 (1944) and they maintained
sector communications until they departed for Pearl Harbor on August 10, a
period of nearly one month.

Apparently another ship in Agat
Harbor took over the communication role until a temporary land based station
was installed somewhere in the Agat area.
This new station was first noted in the United States on 15260 kHz under
the callsign NPN8, just after mid September (1944).

In the meantime, reconstruction was
underway for a permanent facility, with station control in the naval
headquarters on Nimitz Hill, the transmitters at Barrigada, and the receiver
station at Finegayan. A total of 91
shortwave channels were allocated for use by the new naval station NPN, and the
callsign K2XO was introduced for communication with other Allied centers throughout
the Pacific.

In
March 1945, this new naval radio station was inaugurated for regular usage, and
it went on the air under the tactical callsign KU5Q. At this stage, three transmitters were in
use, each rather low powered, with at least one rated at 2 kW. However, propagation to Asia, the South
Pacific and the United States mainland was usually very good, due to the
extended saltwater pathway across the Pacific Ocean.

For a year or so, the Finegayan
receiver station was also in use for the monitoring of Japanese radio traffic
in the Pacific. A radio analysis group
was formed and they operated under a temporary callsign NIM.

The new KU5Q was often noted in Morse and voice communication with Asia,
the Philippines, California, Hawaii and other islands throughout the Pacific,
as well as with naval and commercial shipping in nearby waters. On many occasions, the station also relayed
radio programs for onward broadcast to and from Pacific rim countries, programs
that included news bulletins and commentaries, sports, and local music programs.

There were occasions also when KU5Q
was noted in Australia, New Zealand and the United States with a relay of the
programing from the AFRS mediumwave station WXLI. The studios for both KU5Q and WXLI were
co-located at Mt Alutom, a few miles southwest of Agana.

In March 1945, KU5Q relayed live
commentaries from a navy vessel during the American invasion of Okinawa for
rebroadcast in the United States. Then
in September 1945, KU5Q played a key role in the relay of news and information
to and from the United States for the Peace Ceremony and the signing of the
peace documents in Tokyo Bay.

At this stage, it was officially
announced that the international communication services rendered by KU5Q on
Guam, and hence the usage of the callsign KU5Q, would cease at the end of the
month of October. However, the usage of
the KU5Q international relay service was extended for exactly one more year.

In July 1946, KU5Q served as a
co-ordinating relay for radio communication with navy vessels associated with Operation Crossroads, the
American atomic tests over Bikini Atoll.
At this stage, KU5Q operated with six transmitters, five at 3 kW and one
at 10 kW, a TEC model manufactured by Press Wireless.

There were many occasions when KU5Q
was on the air with four transmitters in parallel. The antenna systems were unidirectional
rhombics, 860 feet long.

During the final month or two of
service under the callsign KU5Q, the station was under the control of the naval
Public Information Service. QSL cards
and form letters were issued, and the greatest quantity of reports, they
stated, came from Sweden.

The usage of the tactical callsign
KU5Q ended in 1946, though this naval radio station continued in regular
communication service under the original naval callsign NPN. The station was rebuilt in 1954, with a new
receiver station adjacent to the older station at Finegayan, and a new
transmitter station at Barrigada.

The American naval radio station NPN
on the island of Guam has also issued QSL cards for its communication
transmissions with the callsign NPN in large letters superimposed over a map of
the island of Guam.

The
small Canadian island known as Triangle Island is located on the edge of the
Pacific Ocean, some 30 miles northwest of the much larger Vancouver
Island. This rugged little island, just three miles in circumference, is a jagged cone-shaped peak rising some 700 feet
above sea level.

Triangle Island is a lonely
windswept place that was named after the jagged reefs, with their three-sided geometric form, that surround the island. No trees grow on the island, and there is
minimal vegetation.

The winds blowing across this island
are so strong that it was necessary to attach steel cables to the roofing on
buildings and to anchor the cables in the ground. Ropes were attached between the buildings so
that staff would not be blown away; and even then for safety, at times the
staff found it necessary to crawl across the ground on their stomachs. Staff sequestered inside their homes because
of inclement weather have been known to become sea sick when the winds
violently rocked the houses on their foundations.

During the year 1908, officials from
mainland Canada visited Triangle Island to evaluate the possibility of
establishing a lighthouse and a wireless station on the top of the main
peak. Soon afterwards, prefabricated
buildings and other equipment were shipped to the island, and a steep tramway
was installed from the waterline up the steep incline to the top of the island.

Original planning for the maritime wireless
station called for a 3 kW spark transmitter, and interestingly, a commercial
wireless company also requested a license for their own station on the island
as part of a projected Trans-Pacific network.
However, as subsequent events inform us, the only wireless station ever
installed on this isolated island was the Canadian government station which
began test transmissions on February 17, 1910, under the callsign TLD. That event was right on 106 years ago.

Two or three weeks later, station
TLD was taken into regular service for communication with shipping into and out
of the Inside Passage which separates the Canadian mainland from their island
of Vancouver. Unfortunately though,
because of the high winds, and the often stormy low cloud formations, the
wireless station was unable to communicate adequately with passing ships, and
the ships were unable to discern clearly the light from the lighthouse.

Two years after the Triangle Island
wireless station was commissioned, the roof of the transmitter building was
blown off. That was in 1912; and then
during the following year 1913, the callsign was regularized to VAG.

However at this stage, another
coastal wireless station was installed at Alert Bay on nearby Cormorant Island,
and initially this new station identified with the callsign CFD, though soon
afterwards this too was changed, to VAF.
When station VAF at Alert Bay was taken into regular service, station
VAG on Triangle acted merely as a wireless relay station.

During World War 1, the Triangle
station was guarded by military troops; and give half a dozen more years, and
both the lighthouse and the wireless station were closed. Inefficiency of operation due to adverse
weather conditions, the cost of operating these services at a difficult and
isolated location, and harsh living circumstances for the operating personnel
were cited as the major reasons for closing the Triangle service and
transferring its activities to a more amenable locality.

The wireless station on Triangle
Island was closed in 1921, and this maritime service was transferred to a new
wireless station at Bull Harbour on nearby Hope Island. The callsign VAG was also transferred from
Triangle Island to Bull Harbour.

Then a score of years later, and
this second VAG station was moved and rebuilt half a mile down the same road,
but it did not survive there either. In
1990 VAG was sold off, and the maritime wireless service was transferred to the
Alert Bay station VAF. But that didn’t survive for long either. Four years later (and that was in 1994)
station VAF was closed, and all of the maritime communication services for the
whole area were transferred to Comox Radio down the coast on Vancouver
Island.

These days, Triangle Island may be
visited as an inhospitable tourist attraction; and some of the artifacts from
its earlier history are now on display in a local museum on Vancouver Island.

WORLD OF STAMPS” CONTEST 2016
In the year of Radio Havana Cuba’s 55th
anniversary, we invite our listeners to participate in the contest sponsored by
“The Word of Stamps” program.

The question you must answer is as
follows:“In a world affected by wars, environmental
degradation and social injustices, how can stamp collecting encourage love,
fraternity and peace, among human beings?

One of the most common questions posed by the inhabitants of the northern regions of the republic at the time of the Report of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) - a powerful renewal of broadcasting, at the time covering the entire territory of the republic. So, over the years distant broadcasting public radio stations in our country has been almost completely phased out. In all these cases the reason for the far off broadcasting was a reduction of public funding, to represent the company VGTRK for this purpose. The country found a solution to the issue of broadcasting on the territory of the Arctic and northern regions of Yakutia.

Recall that in 2011, RTR was decided to terminate the radio broadcast of "Radio Russii" in the range of short and long waves. Further more RTR took a number of decisions that led to the cessation of broadcasting radio "Mayak". Thus, on the whole territory of the Russian Federation ceased broadcasting in LW, MW and SW.

"This is the most affected Indigenous Peoples of the North, leading a traditional nomadic way of life, as well as professional hunters, fishermen, agricultural workers, and many others, that, in fact, deprived them of one of the main sources of information. Today on the territory of Yakutia is being broadcast radio in the FM-band. This technology is based on the principle of high-quality broadcast radio signal within the boundaries of settlements. By virtue of geographic specificity, in vast areas of our country it is impossible to catch the signal, except for foreign radio stations. Because, despite the lower quality broadcasting, HF broadcasting as we demand ", - said the Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Alexander Borisov.

To resume powerful broadcasting in the Arctic and northern regions of the republic, it is planned to use short-wave transmitters "Grom-100” ("Thunder-100") and “Viyuga - 250” ("Blizzard-250"), one of the most powerful in the north-east of Russia, earlier broadcasts of "Radio Russii". To do this, you must transfer them to the new frequency, receiving the corresponding license for the use of radio frequency channels, as well as to receive a broadcast license for NBC "Sakha", and most importantly, resolve all financial issues.

Transmitters located in the suburbs of Yakutsk (p. Tulagino) belong to Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network", and are in conservation. The company is currently engaged in registration of a license to operate in the field of communication services and permits for use of radio frequencies by means of radio transmitters "Grom-100” and “Viyuga - 250”.

Broadcasting will be engaged in "Sakha" NEC with 10-hour broadcasting grid. At the meeting of the tender committee of the Federal Radio and Television, which was held in Roskomnadzor Russian Federation in Moscow on 27 January this year, a positive decision on this issue. Interests Yakutia before the Commission was represented by the Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Alexander Borisov and CEO of NBC "Sakha" Ivan Androsov.

Upon receipt of all licenses and permits will be renewed in Yakutia powerful radio transmitters and "Grom-100” and “Viyuga - 250” work in full force. In the zone of the radio broadcast will include 27 districts of the country, including 13 of the Arctic and northern regions. The area of ??coverage will be 2,440 square kilometers, accounting for 78% of the total area of ??the country. Thus, in the second half of 2016 most of the republic will be able to listen to radio broadcasts of NBC "Sakha" in the villages, the forest, on the road, and even reindeer pastures, the press service of the Ministry of Communications of Yakutia.www.dxing.ru / http://www.sakha.gov.ru/news/front/view/id/2608127
Anatoly Klepov-RUS-DX # 860)

Solar activity reached moderate levels early in the period due to an M1/1n flare (R1-minor radio blackout) from Region 2497 at 1056 UTC on 15 Feb, but low levels of activity were observed on 16-19 Feb with very low levels observed on 20-21 Feb as Region 2497 rotated behind the west limb. Region 2497 (N13, L=087, class/area=Eac/250 on 12 Feb) was the largest, most magnetically complex and active sunspot region on the disk this period, however, despite the frequency of solar activity this period no Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached moderate levels on 15-16 Feb but an enhanced solar wind environment due to a coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) caused an increase to high flux levels throughout the remainder of the period (17-21 Feb), with a peak value of 36,500 pfu observed at 1755 UTC on 19 Feb.

Geomagnetic field activity reached G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm levels this period. The onset of a south polar-connected negative polarity CH HSS caused and isolated period of active conditions late
on 15 Feb, unsettled to G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storms on 16-17 Feb, and unsettled to G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storms on 18 Feb. As the CH HSS rotated out of geoeffective position, geomagnetic field
activity decreased from quiet to unsettled levels on 19-20 Feb to quiet levels on 21 Feb due to the return of a nominal solar wind regime.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 22 February - 19 March 2016

Solar activity is likely to be at low levels with a slight chance for M-class flares (R1-R2 (Minor-Moderate) Radio Blackouts) on 22-29 Feb and 15-19 Mar. C-class flares are expected on 01-14 Mar with a chance for M-class flares due to the anticipated return of Region 2497 (N12, L=087) which produced four M-class flares last rotation.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit, barring any significant flare activity.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 22 Feb and 15-19 Mar due to an enhanced solar wind environment caused by coronal hole high speed
streams (CH HSSs). Moderate levels are likely on 23-24 Feb, 04-05, 07-08 and 13-14 Mar with low flux levels expected for the remainder of the period.

Geomagnetic field activity is likely to reach G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels on 14-16 Mar and active field conditions are likely on 01, 03, 06 and 17 Mar, all due to the effects of multiple CH HSSs. The remainder of the period is expected to be at quiet or quiet to unsettled levels under a nominal solar wind regime.